How big of a relapse

does it take?

 

How big of a slip

of your foot off the break

before they ring up

your next of kin?

 

Can you imagine what it takes

to understand news

that is told in a language

you can’t comprehend?

A strange man

fills their ears with

so much jargon.

All they catch of his phrase is, “…your father.”

 

Leave them digging through

the newly deceased’s

yard sale medical textbook

to translate a coroner’s

loose tongued terminology.

 

No cranial nerve impulses.

No pupillary response.

No oculocephalic reflex.

No spontaneous respirations.

 

You’d hold that book

like a Bible.

You’d search those pages

for a miracle

or a prayer.

 

You’d know they’ve told you something important

but you can’t quite

make the words out.

They said something.

They said it too fast.

 

Please…

slow down,

slow down,

slow down.